Healthy Diet with Whole Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, and Dairy Contains Friendly Microbes

Microbes are important for our digestive health, and researchers still have much to learn about how different foods impact our gut microbiome. In this study, researchers cooked 3 days worth of food from 3 different diets (a typical American diet with lots of convenience foods; a USDA recommended healthy diet with whole grains, fruits, vegetables, dairy, and lean meats; and a vegan diet consisting only of plant foods) and then analyzed the microbes present in the foods. The USDA recommended healthy diet was shown to have the highest total microorganisms. However, it was also the only meal plan that included yogurt, a non-heat-treated fermented food well known for its probiotic content.
PeerJ. 2014 Dec 9;(2):e659. doi:10.7717/peerj.659 (Lang JM et al.)